How Do the Remittance Outflows React to Economic Development in Saudi Arabia? Evidence from NARDL

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. Non-oil economic growth is an important issue for an oil-exporting country such as Saudi Arabia. This paper in general clearly presents its research method, steps, and empirical results.  Some important issues remain to clarify or improve.
2. This paper does the Granger causality test after it runs the time series regressions. This order of research steps is not reasonable.  The Granger causality tests should be done and reported before the regressions.  That is, the independent variables can be included in the regressions only if they Granger cause the dependent variable.  Therefore, the sequence should be summary of statistics, correlation coefficients, unit root tests, Granger causality tests, time series regressions, etc.
3. In the current Table 7, the term causation should be replaced by causality. The Granger causality is not the de facto causation.  X Granger causes Y if X helps predict Y.  The Granger causality is merely a leading-following relation in the statistical sense.
4. (2) and (3) are the sources of real GDP, which are close to an economic production function. In addition to the ad hoc Granger causality tests, there should be some justifications in the beginning why such an economic production function holds from theory.
5. On p. 6, the number of equation (8) should align to the right. The two “[w]here” terms should align to the left.
6. Figure 5 which indicates the Granger causality directions should be moved to be before the time series regressions.
7. In the time series regressions, now only the contemporaneous relations are considered. Will there be any lagged variable in these regressions?
8. The current conclusion section has only one short section. The policy implications, research limitations, and suggestions for future research, etc., should be further elaborated.
9. The current conclusion says, for example, “specific Saudi policies are needed to maintain this positive effect of the imported labor force and avoid its suggested adverse impact on the literature.” After reading these unclear sentences, the readers may be still not clear whether or not the big question asked by this paper is answered by the current findings. That is, it is still not clear if Saudi Arabia can count on non-oil growth.  The authors should provide clear statistical evidence as well as statements to directly reply to the big question asked by this paper.

Author Response

Dear Professor

You find in revised version all of changes recommended.

we are thankfull for all comment  

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The idea of the paper is rather relevant. Methods used are appropriate.

There are some comments

• It is not necessary to refer to any other research works in the Abstract of the paper. There are special rules foe abstract writing that authors should follow.
• The second part of the Abstract is written confusingly. It does not reflect the conclusions obtained. Some phrases duplicate the conclusions completely. Some revision is in need.
• The conclusions are descriptive, do not show the analysis of the results obtained. Some revision is in need.
• Careful reading of the text is required, correction of typos, errors, font size (lines 32, 40, 70, 91, 182)
• Also, the construction of some sentences requires editorial editing. Their meaning is not always clear. For example, lines 59-61.
• In some cases, incorrect expressions are used, such as “employment force”. Apparently the authors mean “labor force”..

Author Response

Dear Professor 

you find here the revised version of manuscript 

we have take all of recommendation 

we are thankful for your comments 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The article raises the issue of the importance of external labour for the country's economic development. The problem of foreign workers and their negative impact on the outflow of capital from the country is undertaken in the public arena by representatives of the world of politics. Despite the fact that for years scientific research has confirmed the positive impact of economic immigration on the economy of the host countries, the problem of foreign workers is the subject of interest of many researchers. The problem presented in the article, due to the chosen example of Saudi Arabia, can be considered extreme, however, this economic monoculture, based on oil, allowed to draw simple conclusions. It may be considered whether similar results would be obtained on a local or regional scale. Additionally, in this particular case, the importance of soft factors (including cultural ones), which constitute a positive value of the presence of a qualified workforce, has been omitted. I believe that the article deserves to be published.

Author Response

Thank you. Here the revised Version 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

1. There is no point-to-point reply letter attached with the revision and resubmission. Instead, the authors simply attached an unmarked manuscript and said, “Dear Professor You find in revised version all of changes recommended. we are thankfull for all comment”  It is then very difficult in checking whether or not this manuscript is substantially revised.  A point-to-point reply letter is required in most of the major international journals.
2. By checking the revised manuscript and the round 1 comments, some points are found to be clarified or improved.
3. Table 4 finds that there is co-integration (long-run) relation. In this case the vector error correction model (VECM) should be used for estimation.  It is then not clear why this paper uses ARDL with stationary data to estimate.  This paper actually finds both of long-run and short-run relationships but only estimates the short-run relationships.
4. In the last review, this reviewer pointed out the ‘where’ clause should be align to the left. However, on pp. 5-6, for instance, there are still some ‘Where’ not aligning to the left and starts with the capital alphabet ‘W’.
5. (3) is broken up in the middle and should be re-edited.
6. In the newly added paragraphs in conclusion, the use of “So” should be replaced by “Therefore” in formal English writing.
7. It is not clear if the non-oil economic growth (NOGDP) of Saudi Arabia can be sustained. This paper ends with talking about the imperfections in labor markets of Saudi Arabia, which does not clearly answer the main research question in this paper yet.
8. The references still use full journal names. This journal uses abbreviation names for journals.  The alignments of references are not fitting this journal’s template yet.  Please refer to the template of this journal to re-edit this paper.

Author Response

Dear professor,  
I hope this email finds you well, 
Please kindly check the revised copy of the article attached below as requested. 

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf